Faced with this concern for winter 2025-2026, solutions are on the government’s table.
On the side of the Minister of Energy, there is the possibility of extending reactors which should stop during the summer of 2025. During that summer, these reactors would be put to rest, just to save fuel . They would be relaunched with the approach of winter and their final shutdown would be deferred for a few months, once the winter is over.
With this in mind, we could not stop Doel 3 and Tihange 4 right away and use them until the end of winter 2025-2026. However, this scenario would imply postponing the work needed to extend these two plants for ten years. They would therefore risk being unavailable during the following winter, 2026-2027. Another possible solution would be to extend the life of the other reactors, Doel 1, Doel 2 or Tihange 1 by a few months, or even more, to enable them to be operational during the winter of 2025-2026.
Another option on the federal government’s table is to speed up the construction of a new gas-fired power plant. In Tessenderlo, the TDS company has a project in this direction which has obtained the green light from the Flemish Minister for the Environment.. However, this project would not be favored by the Federal Minister of Energy.